The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-04-01
a CHANCE MEETING,

sturdy-looking man, with every out
ward appearance OF health and pros
perity; but as he sat there in the col
ner of the railway carriage, with his
hands thrust deeply into the capa-
cious pockets OF his fur-lined coat, and
with his travelling cap pulled low over
his eyes, l doubt ii there were so
wretched a man in the whole OF that
London express.
There was a. terrible storm on, for
it was the Christmas Eve Of rs,
and destined to be q mem
orabIe night in the annals OF the
weather almanacs; but as he
sat there watchingt the snow being hurl-
ed in compact masses against the win
dows, John Challoner felt a certain
grim satisfaction that nature should
be in accordance with his own tenn
pestuous thoughts. He was not very
sure Of their present whereabouts, but
as far as he could Judge, the train
vas already some hours late, and was
progressing at a very slowrate indeed.
Well, what did it matter after all,
whether or not he were home in time
for the Christmas Day? The big
dreary house, that a girls young pres
ence had seemed to flood with sun
shine, would appear ever bigger and
drearier, now that that girl had left it
forever. There would be Sarah, of
course, the silent elder sister, who had
watched over Johns motherless boy
hood, and who loved him with so jeal-
Gus a devotion; but then-Sarah was
not Madge, and it was Madge he want
ed. Not that he would have admitted
as much for a moment, that would
have been too ridiculous, when it was
only last night. after a somewhat pro-
longed visit to the Scottish metropo-
lis, that he had been talking to a law
yer in Edinburgh, and giving him in
structions about the drawing up of
the paper which was to separate the
husband and wife. John was to
90 his way, and Madge was to go
hers. And this was the end Of those
four years of married life which
had opened so brightly and well; this
vas the end of that first tiny quarrel,
when Challoner had forgotten the
promise to take his girl-wife to an
especial dance, and had spent the even
ing among the books which had been
the sole companions of his hitherto
solitary life. Whose actual fault was
it that things had come to this pass?
In what had the trouble consisted,
that there had been such iarrIng in
the home that they had ultimately
decided to live their lives apart?
The train went slower and slower;
the freshly fallen snow lay in high
banks on either side; but John Chal-
toner's thoughts never wandered from
the old sore subject. One by one he
recalled the various landmarks of
those four years. How bitterly
Sarah had resented the advent of the
young bride; how impossible he had
found it to live a society life with
Madge and yet get through the neces-
sary literary work which meant his
livelihood; how eagerly his young cous-
in, Charlie Thorne, had volunteered
to take her TO dances and so on in his
stead. Then he recalled their little
daughters birth, and the glad hopes
that had sprung into life as he took
his tiny Christmas rose in his stall
wart arms and tried to trace the
mother-look In the baby features.
But the baby had only lived to see
her second birthday, and with her
death "the rift within the Lutte" had
slowly widened, and the faint music
which had echoed in their daily lives
was turned into iangling discord.
tsMadge WAS fonder OF young Thorne
than Of John himself" Sarah had av-
erred; and the poor fellow had been
forced to acquiesce, when barely had
the dead child been laid to rest before
her mother had taken up the old
whirl OF dissipation. with Charlie
Thorne in constant attendance.
There was nothing, / think, which
John Ch&lioner felt so bitterly as this
same apparent hard-hearuedness. It
is not often that men care for very
young children. but this cnrly-headed
little daughter had been simply wor-
shipped by her father. The fact that
this man was a poet both by nature
and profession may perhaps have
helped him in his love and comprehen-
sion Of what Theodore Wattsso beau
tifulIy calls stne music OF human
speech-the beloved babbIe Of
children but certain it is that
he had set high hopes uron this little
one. The highest of all was that she
would bind his beautiful wife closer to
him: but the baby had died and was
under the snow. and the dead hopes
were buried iii the scrap 81 LAWYERS